Yosemite + Alaska Megatrip Photo Advice

[mstu33]

Next month, I am spending a week at Yosemite followed by a 7-night Alaska cruise. I have a R6 with the RF 24-105 f4 L lens. I use it most to shoot events and stock photos at work (I am not professionally trained), but have never traveled with it. I would like to photograph the amazing views in both places and my husband climbing. 

Will my 24-105 be enough to shoot a trip like this? I would consider a rental of a longer length but don't want to weigh myself down too much. Also, if anyone can recommend a camera backpack that would be good for this trip, I would love suggestions! We will be hiking in Yosemite. 

[Hazel_T]

Hi mstu33,

The RF 24-105mm lens is a good all around choice. It covers the focal lengths needed for situations for general family photos and wide vista shots.

If you want to shoot details that are further away the 105mm telephoto end might be a little bit limiting. If you need a lens that can zoom further our the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM or the RF100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM lens. Between the two the 100-500mm will have better focus and optics since it is an L series lens.

If you only need a lens that can zoom a bit further out a another option would be the RF24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM lens. It isn't an L series lens so it doesn't have the weather sealing or higher quality lens elements. It does have a wide zoom range though that can be helpful in a wider range of situations so it can be a good lens for general vacation photos.

For the backpacks through Canon support we can only recommend products sold by Canon. If you would like to see the backpacks we offer those are listed HERE.

For sales related questions, like purchasing and when items will be back in stock, you would need to contact our sales team. They can be reached by chat on our sales web page or by phone at 1-800-385-2155 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Saturday.

[Tronhard]

Hi and welcome to the forum! 🙂

When you say you are going to visit Yosemite and Alaska, my first advice would be to consider hiring a lens if it is not going to be something that you will get value from in the future.  The biggest supplier of such gear is a company called Lens Rentals and you can search for their site - they are very highly regarded and you could arrange for them to ship to your cruise ship or later base accommodation at the park, and ship the lens back to them when you have finished with it. They provide packing and labels, I believe.

Given you have an R6, (I have a couple) I would personally recommend the following lenses: if you just want the telephoto add-on:  the Canon Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM or the Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM lens.  The former is light and could be more convenient perhaps but has a shorter FL.  Either would work well as an addition to the 24-105 L f/4.  If you prefer L glass and are prepared to handle the weight (it's not massively heavy) the 100-500 will give you much longer reach.  

If you don't need the reach, and want to carry just one lens, then I would suggest buying the RF 24-240 lens - it's actually a brilliant piece of kit and compares well with the performance of the 24-105L across their common focal range.  Obviously, it's not got the constant aperture of the 24-105L, but it is a great unit and would mean that you have the ability to have a huge selection of focal ranges in one lens. 

The requirements for output vary significantly -there is a massive difference in what is required to produce large Art prints as compared to digital display or social media posts. Thus, depending on what you want to produce, you can put your R6 into crop mode, at which point the Field of View of the sensor is cropped down to that of an APS-C camera, giving you a Field of View with the 24-240 equivalent to a 38-380mm lens on a full-frame unit.  By the same token, the RF100-500 with crop sensor mode will have a FoV of 160-800mm!

That one lens might be worth buying as a walk-around lens!  See: Canon RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS USM.

I have all the 24-105, 100-500 and 24-240 lenses and can recommend them all - they each have their strengths.

For a review of 24-240 lens compared to the 24-105L, see Canon RF 24-240mm f4-6.3 IS USM review | Cameralabs and another by Justin Abbott: Canon RF 24-240mm F4-6.3 IS Definitive Review | 4K - YouTube Both reviewers are good sources of information.  If you were hiking and wanted to have the camera protected but easily available, I would recommend a holster by LowePro or Think-tank.  Also, get some spare cards, batteries and make sure you pack your charger!

I hope that this will be of some help, but feel free to ask more questions if you want to!

[ebiggs1]

"I have a R6 with the RF 24-105 f4 L lens."

The only other lens I would take is one or the other Tamron G2/Sigma C 150-600mm super zooms. You will need the Canon EF to R lens adapter. Without doubt you are going to want a les that will get you closer to the subject. Either of these is not terribly expensive and they both have very good IQ. 

As for a backpack, there are many choices, pick what suits your fancy but I don't think any will be a real good candidate to carry a big super zoom lens. However both come with a nice case of their own. Unfortunately big lenses are big. There is no way around that but neither is really too terribly heavy. IMHO, I would never go to Alaska without a super zoom lens. There is no replacement for and you never have too much focal length!

[Waddizzle]

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@mstu33 wrote:

Next month, I am spending a week at Yosemite followed by a 7-night Alaska cruise. I have a R6 with the RF 24-105 f4 L lens. I use it most to shoot events and stock photos at work (I am not professionally trained), but have never traveled with it. I would like to photograph the amazing views in both places and my husband climbing. 

Will my 24-105 be enough to shoot a trip like this? I would consider a rental of a longer length but don't want to weigh myself down too much. Also, if anyone can recommend a camera backpack that would be good for this trip, I would love suggestions! We will be hiking in Yosemite. 

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You might consider renting a small drone with a camera.  Carry extra batteries that are fully charged.  Carry extra memory cards.  I use Ziploc bags to store camera bodies, lenses, and spare bags.

A super telephoto lens would be nice for wildlife.  Beware of their size and weight if you are going to be hiking for an entire week.  Ditto, for a small drone.

Lowepro used to make excellent bags for hiking, which could carry camera gear and human gear.

[jrhoffman75]

"You might consider renting a small drone with a camera. "  Drone flight is not allowed in National Parks and many wilderness areas. It may also be prohibited in many state facilities in Alaska. I wouldn't spend money on renting a drone without careful research on where it can be used. If you never flew a drone before I would also plan on having to pay the rental agency the cost of the drone when you lose it. 

[ebiggs1]

Perhaps I am too old school but I would never consider taking a drone. I do know they are not allowed in certain places. But my friends have told me drones are set to return home (to base) automatically (by GPS) when they lose signal.

I asked the same question because that's what would certainly happen to me. 😊

[jrhoffman75]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Perhaps I am too old school but I would never consider taking a drone. I do know they are not allowed in certain places. But my friends have told me drones are set to return home (to base) automatically (by GPS) when they lose signal.

I asked the same question because that's what would certainly happen to me. 😊

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Ideally the drone will RTH on loss of signal or when it starts getting low on battery power. But people forget to set a proper RTH height or don't get a proper GPS lock on the home point. Or misjudge the path and fly into a tree, etc. 

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

All here have made great suggestions.  Being new to mirrorless, but not photography, I'd like to share the following.

The advice regarding bags to protect your gear is good.  Lots of memory cards and batteries too.  An air puffer is also handy where its dusty.  We recently visited Kauai and one of my colleagues brought a Dji drone.   It was completely awesome and fun, but the guys are right about where you can fly it.  He was asked more than once to ground it or face ejection.  We got some great shots though and you absolutely don't need to worry about losing it as long as it has power.  It literally will come right back to you and land if it cannot communicate with the controller.  He flew it out of sight and it always came back.  Crystal clear 4k video and the whole thing works in conjunction with your iPhone/Android device.

Lens wise, rent or buy the RF 100~500mm.  You won't want to shoot in crop mode since you are only starting with 20.1MP and it only goes down from there if you put the camera into crop mode.  The reach should be good "enough" and the size of the lens will be slightly less than a 150~600, but like Ernie said, its heavy either way.  

Trevor has shown us fantastic results with his 24~240mm, and at <$800 its a great lens, but it will largely mimic your 24~105 (coverage wise) and if you will be hiking, carrying your 24~105 and 100~500mm is going to give you the most bang for your buck.  You can also consider a small USB-PD unit which can charge and run the R6.  The Anker Power core is heavy, but it packs a lot of power (about $170).  I went with a 45W Safuel model that was $20.  Granted it doesn't provide as long a power duration but in a pinch its good. 

Pack wise you are going to be limited.  As soon as you throw a 100~500mm onto a camera, a sling pack won't work.  They are good to about 300mm and I can barely get my EF 24~70 with a control ring mounted into my LowenPro sligshot 250.  Cost to keep the bag and solve that issue $2400 RF 24~70 that won't need the adapter.  I knew the day I've have to start buying RF glass was coming.  Go with as large of a pack as you are comfortable with.  Other needs, water, compass, phone, first aid (stuff happens).  Alaska is still on our bucket list.  We had booked a viking cruise in 2020 that covid completely decimated.  Canada closed and we ultimately decided to scrape the trip as 90% of things were going to be shut down.  I hope you have a wonderful time and we look forward to the moose, elk and polar bear photos.

[Tronhard]

Rick has some great points, and we agree on the RF 100-500 to rent or buy, but I do disagree with his comment:
the "24~240mm, and at <$800 its a great lens, but it will largely mimic your 24~105 (coverage wise)". That is true only if you carry both lenses all the time. Obviously, the 24-240 covers about 2.3 times the focal range of the 24-105, and my point with suggesting this lens is there could well be times when taking the 100-500 and 24-105 may be too much weight or bulk (there are some seriously steep trails in Yosemite), so replacing your current 24-105 with the 24-240 would mean that you could take just the one lens, already attached to your camera, when you don't want a second lens - I have been down that road doing hikes myself, and it makes a difference.  The 24-105 and 24-240 are almost exactly the same weight, but you get a lot more range and flexibility with the latter.

As regards MP size and using crop mode. Yes, crop mode will reduce your MP capacity to about 8MP, and that is why I made a point of saying that everything depends on what you are going to produce.  I will say again that there is a world of difference between producing high-quality, high-resolution Fine Art prints, compared to posting on social media, presenting on digital devices or making modest size prints.  Social media sites inevitably reduce the size of your images to a fraction of the 8MP - e.g. this site won't accept anything more than 5MP.

To make my point, the following images were taken with a Canon EOS D30, vintage 2000, of 2.4MP. They were taken hand-held in dim light.  To me they look perfectly fine for digital display.

As far a printing goes, again a lot depends on how big and on what medium you are going to print.  Some 11 years ago I took a photo of the Rockies with a Canon EOS 60D, and produced a canvas print that is 60"x40" from an 8MP image, and it still gets complements!  It has been reduced in size to get it on this site, but it looks impressive because of its size and you naturally look at it from a distance.

The fact is that the larger the image, the further way people view a photo (except for critical pixel-peeping photographers), and that balances out the resolution issue to a fair degree.

However, using crop mode is exactly the same as cropping in post production, so you can still shoot at full frame and do whatever crop you need to later.